Nearly one in five US undergraduates is raising a child while working toward a degree, yet a new evaluation of public colleges finds Kentucky's universities still have gaps in the support they offer. The 2026 Campus Pregnancy Support Study, conducted by Students for Life of America, rated eight Kentucky institutions among 553 public schools nationwide. Its findings point to uneven resources across the state, with the most common needs going largely unmet.
How the ratings were built
The study scored each institution on a five-star scale across five categories: housing policies, on-campus resources, financial assistance, medical attention and accommodations, and policy transparency. Kentucky's eight schools averaged 3.3 stars. The University of Kentucky scored 4.5 stars, the highest in the state, while Morehead State University and Kentucky State University each received 2 stars, the lowest ratings.
The evaluation is relevant because federal Title IX rules already require colleges to prevent sex discrimination, including discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth and parental status, and to offer reasonable accommodations. The study's ratings measure how fully schools have turned those obligations into concrete services.
Where Kentucky schools perform well and where they fall short
All eight schools offer lactation rooms, pregnancy testing, housing for pregnant students and referrals to outside health and pregnancy resource providers. Those basics appear to be widely in place.
The weaker areas are less common services. On-campus childcare is offered at Kentucky State, Northern Kentucky, the University of Kentucky and Western Kentucky, a higher share than the national average, which the study puts below 50 percent of schools. Family housing is rare, but Morehead State, the University of Kentucky and Western Kentucky provide it to qualifying students. The University of Louisville is the only Kentucky school the study identified as offering maternity parking. Only the University of Kentucky and Northern Kentucky offer scholarships or grants specifically for pregnant and parenting students, a gap that matters because nationally 85 percent of schools offer none.
Transparency and practical gaps
Kentucky State and Morehead State do not publish pregnant and parenting student policies or accommodations online, which makes it harder for students to learn what help exists before they enroll. Kentucky State also lacks diaper-changing stations on campus.
What the findings do and do not show
The study is an advocacy group's evaluation based on publicly available information, so its ratings reflect what schools disclose and how the group weighs each category. A low score does not necessarily mean a school fails to help individual students, and the study itself acknowledges that appropriate accommodations depend on an institution's size, resources and student population. Its recommendation is that schools unable to provide services directly should at least build referral relationships with community agencies that can.